Sunday, February 26, 2012

Eatonville Road Race

Today I was able to drag out my road bike for the first time in a long time. Since maybe September. Has anyone else noticed that it is always either wet or dark this time of year?

I'm pretty sure I was the only person using downtube shifters or a 20+ year old bike. The bike worked wonderfully, like it always does, except for one problem: my rain bike (that I always ride this time of year) has a rapid rise derailleur and down tube shifters so I had to constantly remind myself to shift in the opposite direction. I wish there were rapid rise short cage derailleurs available.

There was a dusting of snow and black ice on some of the hills approaching Eatonville on the way to the race but thankfully the race course was in good shape- no ice. It was a good circuit, with a couple of decent hills to keep things interesting. A starbucks rider went off the front right after the first lap and stayed there for at least 1.5 laps before a 6 man chase group including myself caught him. We had to ride hard to catch him. He was willing and able to immediately start taking turns pulling after being caught. After drilling it for most of the race in our 7 man group, and riding solo for 1.5 laps, he won the sprint- this dude was really strong! I was feeling a little worse every lap and with 1k to go, when the accelerations started happening, it was everything I could do to stay on a wheel, let alone counter. I didn't contest the sprint and wound up seventh. I think my man Todd Morse Tucker was third.